Cladding remediation: 103,000 dwellings still waiting for work to start

An estimated 103,000 dwellings are still in occupied buildings where cladding remediation has not started, according to the Government’s latest building safety figures.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says 4,724 residential buildings of 11 metres and above with unsafe cladding were being monitored at the end of August 2026. Work had started or finished on 2,571 of them, or 54%, while 2,153 buildings, 46%, had not started remediation.

That 46% figure is unchanged from July, so this is not a story of a sudden August deterioration. It is a measure of the scale of the remaining task, with the department warning that recent month-to-month movements are also being affected by social-housing data migration and cleansing.

Cladding remediation has still not started on nearly half of monitored buildings

The August Building Safety Remediation release, published on 30th September, records 1,849 monitored buildings as having completed remediation and another 722 with work under way. Together, that means 2,571 buildings have started or completed work.

The remaining 2,153 monitored buildings have not started cladding remediation. MHCLG estimates the occupied private and social-sector buildings in its monitoring contain about 250,000 dwellings in total. Around 111,000 dwellings are in buildings where remediation is complete, around 36,000 are in buildings where work has started, and around 103,000 are in buildings where work has not started.

The comparable July estimate for dwellings in buildings where cladding remediation had not started was about 104,000. The proportion of monitored buildings yet to start was also 46% in July. The latest release therefore shows only a modest shift in the headline backlog, rather than a sharp month-on-month change.

August comparisons need a health warning

That does not mean only a small amount of work happened during August. MHCLG says the overall figures are being affected by the continuing move of social-housing records to the National Remediation Database (NRD), alongside data cleansing and methodology changes.

The August release records 93 buildings newly reported as having started or completed cladding remediation, but 73 buildings moving in the opposite direction in the recorded data. That produces a net increase of 20 buildings in the started or completed category.

The department’s explanation is important. Buildings have not generally had remediation physically reversed. Some records have changed category as data has been checked, reconciled or migrated. The previous July release had already warned that fluctuations in social self-funded data were expected while that work continued.

For that reason, the August numbers are a useful snapshot of the portfolio, but they are a poor basis for claiming that practical progress suddenly accelerated or stalled during one month.

Developer cladding remediation shows the strongest movement

One of the more encouraging parts of the release is the developer remediation programme. MHCLG reports 2,679 buildings of 11 metres and above with life-critical fire safety defects that developers have committed to remediate, or pay to remediate.

Of those, 1,416, or 53%, are reported as having started or completed cladding remediation. That is 152 more than in the July publication. The number reported as complete rose by 17 to 613.

There is an important timing qualification. Data supplied directly by developers is stated to be as at 31st July 2026, while information drawn from other government remediation programmes and used in the developer figures is updated to 31st August. It would therefore be misleading to describe every developer figure as an August return.

When buildings reported as having only non-cladding defects are excluded, the department reports 1,840 developer buildings with unsafe cladding. Of those, 914, or 50%, have started or completed remediation and 607, or 33%, are complete.

Cladding Safety Scheme remains the bigger bottleneck

The newer Cladding Safety Scheme shows why the overall picture is less advanced than the long-running high-rise programmes.

At 31st August, 1,497 buildings of 11 metres and above had been assessed as eligible for the scheme, 59 more than at the end of July. Only 417, or 28%, had started or completed cladding remediation, including 139 buildings, or 9%, recorded as complete.

A further 2,660 buildings were still at pre-eligible stages. Of those, 1,846 were progressing through eligibility checks and 814 remained at pre-application stage. Those figures should not simply be added to the eligible total and described as confirmed unsafe buildings because they are at different stages of assessment.

By comparison, the older Building Safety Fund is much further through its pipeline. Of 640 high-rise residential buildings proceeding with applications, 564, or 88%, have started or completed non-ACM remediation and 490, or 77%, have completed it.

The ACM programme is further advanced again. Of 516 identified high-rise buildings with ACM systems unlikely to meet Building Regulations, 503, or 97%, have started or completed remediation. The release records 478, or 93%, as complete, including buildings awaiting building-control sign-off, leaving 13 yet to start.

Medium-rise cladding remediation is still behind

The height split is another revealing part of the data. MHCLG says 62% of monitored buildings at least 18 metres high have started or completed remediation. For buildings between 11 and 18 metres, the figure is only 46%.

The gap in cladding remediation progress is consistent with the different maturity of the programmes. High-rise ACM cladding remediation has been under sustained intervention for years, and the Building Safety Fund is also relatively mature. Many medium-rise buildings have entered the system later through the Cladding Safety Scheme or developer-led routes.

That does not prove a single cause for the difference. Funding eligibility, programme maturity, building-control requirements, responsible-party disputes and the risk profile of individual buildings can all affect how quickly a project reaches site.

929 buildings have faced Housing Act enforcement action

The release also records local-authority enforcement activity against 929 buildings over 11 metres with suspected unsafe cladding, six more than in the July data.

This is Housing Act 2004 enforcement, not planning enforcement. The July release explained that its enforcement total includes local-authority action on buildings of 11 metres and above and that the underlying activity can include inspections as well as formal notices.

In July, MHCLG said it was aware of at least 277 improvement notices, 123 hazard awareness notices and one prohibition order having been served across 921 buildings, with some buildings receiving more than one notice. It also said 64 improvement notices had been appealed.

The Local Government Association has said councils are already using Housing Act powers to pursue dangerous cladding and are supported by the Joint Inspection Team it hosts. In its briefing on the Government’s Remediation Bill, the LGA said additional powers to compel building owners to act would assist councils and fire and rescue authorities.

The monitored total is not the whole problem

The 4,724 buildings currently being monitored should not be read as the final number of affected buildings in England.

MHCLG’s latest estimate remains that between 5,900 and 7,400 residential buildings of 11 metres and above have, or had, unsafe cladding requiring work. That is estimated to represent 8% to 14% of the relevant residential building stock.

The department expects between 5,800 and 7,300 buildings ultimately to be remediated or mitigated through its five cladding remediation programmes. On that basis, the current 4,724 monitored buildings represent an estimated 65% to 81% of the buildings expected eventually to enter those programmes.

Put another way, MHCLG still expects roughly 1,100 to 2,600 additional buildings to enter the monitored programmes or be confirmed eligible. That does not mean every building in that range is already individually identified and proven to have unsafe cladding. The range is an estimate of the remaining programme population.

The cost estimate is still based on March 2025 information

The release continues to use an estimated external-wall remediation cost of between £11.8 billion and £22.7 billion. That figure needs careful handling because it is not a new September 2026 cost estimate.

MHCLG says the estimate is based on March 2025 information and has not yet been updated to reflect the revised March 2026 estimate of the number of affected buildings. The older estimate divides the eventual capital cost between roughly £6.7 billion to £15.2 billion of government funding and £5.2 billion to £7.4 billion from developers, registered providers and other non-government actors.

The same material refers to an estimated £3.4 billion revenue target for the Building Safety Levy. The levy begins on 1st October 2026 and is intended to contribute towards the cost of fixing historic building-safety defects.

What cladding remediation means for owners, landlords and developers

For leaseholders and landlords, the key question is not simply whether a building appears in the national headline total, but which cladding remediation route it is in, whether eligibility has been confirmed, who is responsible for the work and what stage the building has actually reached.

For developers and managing agents, the figures underline the importance of keeping programme records, building-control information and responsibility for remedial work aligned. A building can move through funding, eligibility and enforcement processes on different timetables.

For local authorities, the 929-building enforcement figure is a reminder that the Housing Act route is becoming an increasingly visible part of the national cladding remediation system. It is separate from the planning enforcement regime that Planning Geek readers will know from unauthorised development cases.

Our Building Regulations guide explains the wider building-control system, while our Building Safety Levy guide covers the new charge on residential development in England.

Slow overall progress, but very different programmes underneath

The August release does not support a simple claim that cladding remediation has stopped moving. Developer-led figures show substantial movement, the established ACM and Building Safety Fund programmes are well advanced, and more buildings continue to enter the Cladding Safety Scheme.

But the other side of the picture remains stark: 46% of monitored buildings have not started cladding remediation and an estimated 103,000 dwellings are in occupied monitored buildings where work has yet to begin.

Recent reporting also shows the human consequence behind those statistics. The Guardian reported in August that Giles Grover of End Our Cladding Scandal said, “Progress has been very slow in the last couple of years.” In the same report, MHCLG said it was “speeding up cladding removal” and introducing a new legal duty to remediate.

Those positions are not mutually exclusive. More buildings are entering the system and some programmes are now well advanced, while a very large backlog remains. The next test will be whether newer cladding remediation routes, particularly the Cladding Safety Scheme and developer remediation, can convert eligibility and commitments into work starting on site at a faster rate.